


In Which Bad Times Are Had by a Houseplant

by QuestionableCorrosion



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, Timeline Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 09:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5123171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuestionableCorrosion/pseuds/QuestionableCorrosion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flowey learns why it's important to look around before saving.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Bad Times Are Had by a Houseplant

"I won't bother asking you why. I can guess."

Flowey landed back on the ground with a shudder, struggling to stay conscious. Every fibre of his being screamed in torment.

Counter-attack. He had to muster a counter-attack, but as much as he tried to focus, his magic fizzled out before he could conjure even the feeblest of bullets. The most he could do was aim a venomous glare at the infuriating smiling skeleton.

"You did it because you thought it'd be fun, right?" Sans loomed over him, his eternal grin fixed on his face like he had just told Flowey another terrible joke instead beating him within an inch of his life. "I hope you had a good laugh over it. Murdering my brother, I mean."

Flowey grimaced and closed his eyes. The pain was everywhere, like needles piercing through every single possible part of his body. Of all the things he was incapable of feeling, why couldn't _this_ be one of them?

Still, it would be over soon enough. He had just SAVEd. He'd go back and escape as soon as Sans killed him. Until then...

"It was hilarious," he croaked, mustering a grin. "It was so funny I couldn't stop laughing. You should have seen the look on his face when he turned to dust." He cackled. "Boy, what an idiot he was."

The lights in Sans' eyes disappeared.

Flowey had meant to taunt him further, but before he could open his mouth, there was a blinding flash of light, searing agony, and then darkness.

\---

Reload.

\---

"'Sup?"

Flowey felt shivers down his stem.

He had stood right behind him when he had SAVEd.

\---

Reload.

Flowey wasted no time. He immediately ducked underground, back to the safety of one of his secret tunnels.

Only, as soon as he had done so he found himself back above ground, held in place by an invisible, inexorable force.

"Huh." Flowey heard Sans take a step towards him. His left eye gleamed blue. "So, was that the third time or the fourth?"

If Flowey had had a heart, it would have skipped a beat.

_He knows._

Questions flooded his mind as he looked up at Sans' unchanged expression. How did this bastard know? What else did he know? What had given his powers away?

"Guess," he hissed bitterly.

Sans shrugged. "Fourth, then." The light in his eye became blinding. "How about we make it the last?"

\---

Reload.

Flowey straightened himself in the air, doing his best to ignore the gravitational pull that kept him afloat. " _This_ is the fourth time we've done this."

"Welp." Sans threw his hand down, and Flowey smashed into the ground. "So, you're the one who's been messing around with the timelines? Not bad for a flower."

"That's right." Flowey did what he could to appear dignified and ignore the foremost question on his mind — exactly who _was_ this guy? He was safe, after all: clearly Sans could do nothing about his power to SAVE, or else he would have already done so. He could discover the rest of his secrets after creating a less perilous SAVE. "Now, what are you going to do about it? Nothing?" His grin widened. "Because that is all you can do. And you know it."

The second impact didn't hurt as much as the first. The third one didn't hurt at all.

\---

Reload.

Flowey kept silent the entire time Sans tore him to pieces with magic, focusing entirely on finding a possible out. So far, he saw no escape, but no matter. He'd try again. The strain from dying grew reload after reload, but he still had plenty of tries in him.

After all, this was the most fun he had had in years. This was a real challenge, one filled with painful consequences every time he failed, something that stretched his abilities to their very limit.

It almost made him feel properly alive again.

And if there was a way to escape without resetting, well, wouldn't discovering that just make his day?

\---

Reload.

He would reset after the next one. Or the one after that, at the very least. After dozens of variations of the first several seconds, he had yet to find one where he got away. Perhaps there wasn't one.

\---

Reload.

Lost again.

\---

Reload.

He came up with a new game.

\---

Reload.

"It doesn't matter how many times you kill me. I'll keep coming back. I'll kill your brother again and again and again and laugh every time."

\---

Reload.

"You're as much to blame as I am," Flowey spat out after the initial barrage. "You knew I was bad news, but still did nothing to warn him."

The response he got was another faceful of laser and paralysing agony before death, but he didn't miss the brief flash of pain in Sans' eyes as he attacked.

\---

Reload.

"You should have done something. You easily could have, too. You could have destroyed me before I hurt anyone." Every movement was painful, but Flowey managed a smirk nevertheless. "But you did nothing. And now he's dead."

The retaliation hurt just as much as the previous one, but this time Flowey went to his death laughing.

\---

Reload.

"Do you know what he said before I killed him? He said I was his very best friend." He laughed. "Isn't that cute? Too bad the feeling wasn't mutual..."

\---

Reload.

"Why are you so upset, anyway? He was just as much a worthless piece of garbage as you a—"

\---

Reload.

"Next time, I'll make sure you get to watch as I kill him. Or perhaps it would be more fun to kill you as _he_ watches? Wouldn't you like th—"

\---

Reload.

Feebly, Flowey raised his stem. As fun as it had been, getting repeatedly slaughtered was taking its toll on him. It was time to reset and take a different path.

He looked up at Sans with new eyes. Who would have guessed this bastard would give him such stiff competition? If nothing else, it gave him a lead for new fertile ground to explore.

He smiled. "Knock knock."

Sans paused. The piercing blue light in his left eye dimmed, but didn't quite disappear. "Who's there?"

"Peace."

"Peace who?"

Flowey flashed his most demonic smirk. "Piece of trash who let his brother die."

To Flowey's great surprise, Sans let his hand drop.

He chuckled.

He shrugged. "Well, whaddya know? That one was actually pretty funny."

Flowey locked his eyes with Sans' and began to laugh, harder than he had laughed in ages. Sans laughed back, in a low chuckle that was the complete opposite of his high-pitched cackle.

He kept laughing as one last blue laser obliterated him into particles.


End file.
